Last night, I was pulled in off the street to help an unfamiliar shul make a minyan for Mincha/Ma'ariv. The rabbi greeted me, and when he learned I do not speak Hebrew, he gave me a very nice blessing ...

Several Zmanim apps are giving a choice on my "candle lighting offset". The default here is 40 minutes instead of the usual 18 minutes I've heard.
Why 40? Why do I even have a choice?
Does the fact ...

If one is lighting Chanukkah candles inside (for whatever reason) relying on the publicization to himself and his family, then what should he do on Friday night if he is eating out? Must he make the ...

The gemara Shabbos 47b says that even on Erev Shabbos one may not place a vessel with water in it under a candle in order that any sparks emitted by the flame should fall into the water, because it is ...

When women light shabbat candles I often see them making hand gestures. These look like two or perhaps three circles around in the air. What is the source for this practice? Is it a law or custom? Is ...

I was told by my mother-in-law that my wife should follow all of my minhagim except for shabbat candle lighting and mikveh, for which she will follow her mother's.
Is there any halachic authority who ...

If one doesn't have candles for shabbat, may one say a blessing on light bulbs? Since the point is to have light for שלום בית (household serenity), it would seem that electric lights would have the ...

My whole family will be staying at a hotel over shabbos and the hotel management says that we are not allowed to light fires in our rooms. Nobody will be in our home. How can we fulfill the mitzvah ...

If I were to travel to Barrow, Alaska in the summer, when there is no sunset, when should I light the Shabbat candles?
(This is not a hypothetical question; I work remotely for an Alaskan corporation ...

Is it better to light candles at bezman, or later when there will be more pirsumei nissa? I find 4:30 (approx candlelighting time in NYC this year) to be too early to catch the regular "rush hour." Is ...

On a yartzeit (anniversary of death on Hebrew calendar) for a deceased family member, if one plans to both light a yartzeit candle in one's home and attend shul to say kaddish, is there a preference ...

I'm not sure how widespread the following practice is, since, as a man - and even since I was a young boy - I have always taken little notice of other women and girls outside my immediate family as I ...

Obviously you cannot light candles on a plane, so if you can't light candles within the time frame is there any other activity one could do, which is permissible on an airline, that would fulfill the ...

Since it's not common sense to leave a fire unattended (or against an apartment building's guidelines to have unattended fires), what's the general minhag for lighting Chanuka candles on Erev Shabbat ...

There are two minhagim concerning the time the beracha should be said on lighting yom tov candles for a woman, before or after (like shabbos neros).
I've read arguments like these :
before, because ...

Does anyone today follow Rabbineu Tam time for the beginning of Shabbos? Reading some tshuvas (e.g. Eretz haTzvi) it is clear this was widespread in Europe.
If one has previously been accustomed to ...

Suppose you had a lot of candles, and a small pan of chocolate you wanted to melt, any problem using the yomtov candles for this? Cooking is permitted, but is the use of yomtov candles restricted in ...

As most shuls daven mincha right before Kaballos Shabbos, in order to daven mincha with a minyan on Friday one must light candles prior. Is it better to light candles and then daven mincha, or should ...

If one belongs to a synagogue, and the synagogue tells its members that the community's Shabbos candle-lighting time is a certain time, is one obligated to light at that time (or by 18 minutes after ...

I was taught to say the b'racha on lighting yom-tov candles after lighting, just like for Shabbat, but I understand that some say the b'racha first on yom tov. For those who do and say shehechiyanu ...

When a woman (or, if need be, a man) lights candles for Shabbat, she covers her eyes before making the bracha to "pretend" that the candles aren't lit yet because we generally say the bracha before ...

I often see women closing their eyes and concentrating after lighting Shabbos or Yom Tov candles. I was told that this is an auspicious time to pray. I would like to know if any commentators discuss ...

Before a woman lights candles for Yom Tov that falls out on Motzei Shabbos does it say anywhere that she needs to say "HaMavdil" first? (Since the kedushas are different -- on Shabbos it was ossur to ...